Born in 1983 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Currently based in Stockholm.

In the video “Chief Architect of Gangsta Rap” (2009), Ilja Karilampi explores a rumor that Dr Dre studied to become an architect before joining N.W.A. Taking that work as a starting point, Karilampi has in the recent decade gone on to create a series of exhibitions and works that aesthetically reflect the music world, personal narratives, and odd expressions. Applying various media such as UV-vinyl, film, aluminum & plexiglas, audio tracks, literary texts, and larger installations that play with expectations of time & space, he has proved to be a vibrant & curious artist who depicts our current state.”
– Sten Nordenhake, 2019

“More often than not Karilampi’s behavior genuinely seems to diverge from the day-to-day normative human encounter, predominantly setting itself apart by continuously manifesting—at least allegorically—an unspoiled nature of impulse. The initial frustration of witnessing first hand the artist’s acutely non-gentrified way of interaction exits as rapidly as it enters. Somehow it’s immediately apparent that, if anything, his chaotic posture contributes and parallels only further to the intentionality behind his art practice: a playful homage to a thrivingly memory-less and hyper-plasticized society.

His work, a variety of media, reflects concurrent reality of the personal and public that constantly coincides within the domain of mass-consumerism. Referencing an array of fast-lived pop-culture commodities—like the easily recognizable Drake logo OVO XO or Chobani Greek yogurt—the audience is thrown into a die-hard- sort of cosmos where an inevitable confrontation with (actual) real-life concern takes place.”– COEVAL MAGAZINE, 2016